(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a garment hanger.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Garment hangers in which the outer ends are intended to grip waistbands of garments such as trousers and skirts are well known.
Extendible garment hangers are also known in which arms of the hanger are of variable length to support different sizes of garment on the hanger. Such hangers conventionally fall into two types.
In a first type, which might be typified by that shown in European Patent No. 0386080, two hanger arms are mounted in a body for simultaneous slidable movement in opposite directions relative to each other. The arms are moved manually sufficiently far apart to grip the waistband and then the arms are locked in position with a locking mechanism.
A disadvantage of this type of hanger is that loading operators often over-stretch the waistband material when placing a garment on the hanger. This is because the hanger provides no indication of the appropriate force necessary for retention of garments on the hanger.
In a second type, two arms are slidably mounted on a hanger body for free movement in opposite directions relative to each other and under the action of a compression spring the arms are caused to move outward of the body so that the arms are able to assume positions between a retracted position and an extended position relative to the body to grip the waistband of the garment.
Various cross-sections of part of an arm of such a known extendible garment hanger 100 are shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, in which a body 101 has a longitudinal inverted U-shaped channel 110 for receiving a moveable telescoping arm 120 of I-shaped cross-section. It will be understood that the moveable arm is moveable relative to the body. A coiled compression spring 130 is contained within an upper portion 111 of the channel 110 supported by elongate protrusions 112,113 on inner surfaces of walls of the channel. A first end of the compression spring 130 bears on a stop (not shown) located substantially central of the hanger and an opposed second end of the spring bears on an inner stepped end 121 of the arm 120 to urge the arm outward of the body 101. The arm is provided with a resilient outward facing tab 122 dependent from a lower face of the arm proximate an inner end of the arm to engage an inner end 121 of a rectangular channel portion 131 of the channel 110 proximate an outer end of the body 101, to restrict outward movement of the arm.
A disadvantage with the above described garment hanger is that increasing force is necessary progressively to compress the spring so that, conversely, the spring exerts a decreasing force on the arm 120 as the arm is extended. In order to provide an extension garment hanger which exerts sufficient lateral force on the arm to support a first garment, excessive force may be required to compress the spring to support a second garment smaller than the first garment. Moreover, the garment hanger may exert excessive force on the smaller second garment. That is, a gripping force exerted by the arms on the waistband when they are fully extended is significantly less than a gripping force exerted by the arms on the waistband when they are fully retracted, but in this latter position for gripping the narrowest waistbands the force exerted may be so great as to damage the garment. This is the opposite of what is often required, in that a larger gripping force may be required to support a larger size garment with the hanger arms extended than is needed to support a smaller size garment with the arms retracted.
In general the desirable gripping force supplied by a compression spring in order to hold a garment securely but without damaging the garment is achievable over only a limited width of arm extension. Consequently, it is essential to provide varying widths of hangers of one particular design to accommodate all the required waistband sizes.
Moreover, the spring 130 can become coil bound within the channel 110.
EP 482 509 A discloses expandable garment hangers with a spring in which a force exerted on the arms, and therefore by the garment hanger on a garment, decreases as the hanger is expanded or without any spring and with or without a locking mechanism to lock the arms of the garment hanger in differently expanded positions.
DE 1 753 615 B discloses a garment hanger having two constant force springs housed at outer opposed ends of a body of the hanger, with extendible ends of the springs acting on inner ends of extendable arms. No means of moving the arms in synchronisation is disclosed.
It is an object of the present invention at least to ameliorate the aforesaid disadvantages of the prior art.